Following the sack of Constantinople by crusaders and the Mongols’ defeat of the Seljuk Turks, the Ottomans emerged as a power in northwestern Anatolia. Under Osman’s successors, they crossed the Dardanelles into Europe, defeating the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo.

When the Mongol conqueror Timur invaded the region, he defeated Bayezid, and the subsequent conflict among Bayezid’s sons splintered the Ottoman state. Timur’s empire came to include Persia, central Asia, and northern India, but Timur died before he could fulfill his plan to invade China

devshirme — the system of acquiring Christian boys from the Balkans to be enslaved, converted to Islam, and trained to serve the Ottoman sultan. humanism — a movement born in fourteenth-century Italy that focused on the study of human beings, human nature, and human achievements rather than the study of God. Renaissance — a period of intellectual and artistic rebirth inspired by the cultural achievements of ancient Greece and Rome. Forbidden City — a walled complex of palaces, temples, and gardens built by the Ming dynasty emperors in the center of Beijing.